Harbour & Channel

The situation:  Lyttelton is situated on the East Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is the port for Christchurch - New Zealand's second largest city, and the fertile Canterbury Plains. One of its principal export cargos is coal - railed across the Southern Alps from the West Coast. Its inner harbour is in the flooded crater of an extinct volcano, so space is at a premium.

 

The requirement:  Coal was traditionally loaded in the inner harbour, but this is close to habitation so it was decided to move the coal berths further out and instead use the vacated berths for car carriers. These ships have high windage and the visibility astern is notoriously bad, so turning them in the inner harbour before berthing was a major challenge.

 

When swinging large car carriers before berthing stern-first on the finger wharves, HarbourPilot's accurate display of the position and movement of the stern in relation to other wharves and fixed structures is invaluable.

 

Implementation:  A HarbourPilot system was supplied in November 2004 and training was conducted for the pilots. The DGPS corrections from the signal are transmitted on UHF and decoded in the HarbourPilot hardware. A special large-scale S-57 chart cell was created specially for the port as no ENCs were available.

Results:  Manoeuvring large ships in the inner harbour is now much easier and the use of the system is not confined to car carriers. The curved path prediction facility proves extremely useful in gauging the turn to pass through the harbour entrance, and when making a sternboard into the berth.  

 

The situation:  Ravenna is situated on Italy’s Adriatic Coast, South of Venice. It is a multi-user port, with a narrow canalised channel which has berths on both sides.

 

The requirement:  Ravenna experiences very regular thick fog during the winter season. They wanted a system that allowed them to move ships in and out of the port safely and more efficiently – even in poor visibility conditions. The narrowness of the canal meant large ships could not even see the sides on radar, as they were below the vertical beam-width.

 

No practical demonstration was necessary for the Port of Ravenna, the decision was based on Navicom Dynamics’ reputation and HarbourPilot's obvious ability to meet their needs and requirements. 

 

Implementation:  Navicom Dynamics delivered three sets in July 2005. Using EGNOS for their differential corrections, they achieved a high level of accuracy. Combined with scaled AIS target display of other vessels on the pilot’s laptop, and with curved-path prediction of future positions in a turn, HarbourPilot provided an excellent source of complementary information to the radar and enabled movements to be conducted safely.

 

Results:  "We are very happy to use the HarbourPilot system, as it allows ships to manoeuvre in and out of Ravenna port in any kind of weather conditions, in particular thick fog.  Last night, for example, we had the possibility to perform piloting of two container ships, one entering and the other leaving the port.  Without HarbourPilot, it would not have been possible to berth and unberth these two ships, because of extremely thick fog, until the following day.  Thanks to HarbourPilot, we can guarantee a more efficient service and safe navigation through the port." 

- Andrea Maccaferri - Captain of Pilots, Port of Ravenna.

  

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The situation:  Port Kembla is located south of Sydney on the east coast of New South Wales. It is primarily a bulk port (with iron ore arriving for the steelworks and coal being exported).

 

The requirement:  With fully laden Capesize bulkers berthing on its wharves, it was necessary to control athwartship velocities to very low contact speeds. In the past, such movements were only conducted during daylight hours, but that was severely limiting flexibility – especially in the winter months when there might not be a suitable high water for several days.

 

The solution:  HarbourPilot 

HarbourPilot’s heading stability, together with the precise positioning achieved using a local DGPS reference station transmitting on UHF, enabled the final approaches to the berth to be controlled very precisely – at a much lower cost than installing laser-docking systems.

 

Implementation:  The HarbourPilot equipment was delivered in November 2004 and training conducted for the pilots. On the second day of training, an unexpected benefit for the Port Company and pilots was discovering the performance of HarbourPilot when negotiating tight bends in the channel. The larger ships normally require the assistance of three or more tugs for the main turn through the breakwaters - and there's always that initial doubt in the Master's and Pilot's minds… ‘are we turning fast enough?’   HarbourPilot can give them that confirmation before the ship has turned through even the first 10° of a 90°  turn - so allowing the pilot to ease the turn much sooner and avoid cutting the corner on the inside of the turn.

- Capt. Dennis Parson, Harbour Master, Port Kembla 

 

After losing radio contact with the tugs for several minutes while swinging 180° in the basin at night…

 

  

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The situation:  Port Hedland is a major iron ore export port in North Western Australia.  It has strong currents and crosswinds affecting inbound ships in ballast, and a very long exit channel for the loaded vessels.

 

The requirement:  A Dynamic Underkeel Clearance system allows ships to move safely with very small clearances, but accurate navigation is essential. In particular two very large radius turns have to be negotiated at the very start of the departure, while the ship is accelerating to six knots – sometimes taking one hour to achieve it.

 

HarbourPilot’s precise measurement of heading and position is excellent at detecting low rates of turn – even when the wind and current might be giving the illusion that the ship is turning in the opposite direction at very slow speeds. The curved path predictor enables the pilots to accurately negotiate the large turns as a single operation, as opposed to the succession of small alterations used in the past.

 

Implementation:  A leased HarbourPilot system was delivered in February 2005. It uses MF Beacon DGPS corrections from the AMSA reference station at Karratha. Weight is a critical issue at Port Hedland and a number of improvements have been carried out on their system since its original delivery to reduce it.